Letters: Tougher gun laws needed to protect students

I’m scared for what is going to take place at my school. I’m from Hamilton County, where the most recent school shooting happened. As a student and human, there needs to be action. Gun laws in Indiana need to be restricted, and our schools need to become safer. Schools are supposed to be a safe place for children, but because laws haven’t been changed in years, schools all across America and Indiana now have a body count. Please take a stand against gun violence and to make gun laws stricter.

Olivia Larson

Fishers

Clark wrong about Republican platform

In regard to Micah Clark’s comment on the GOP’s failure to include the word marriage in their platform: Political platforms are not policy, but are statements aimed at the base likely to support the party. Also, failure to mention is not really the same as exclusion.

The conclusions from the studies Clark mentioned are supported by scant examples one might suspect are cherry picked to support an agenda.

Consider the claimed 15% increase in juvenile delinquency in non-happy homes over happy homes: are we to believe 57.5 delinquents is bad and 50 is not? Don’t both seem bad.

I prefer the GOP reference to marriage, if inclusive. Its meaning is beyond what Clark wishes to acknowledge in that there was no reference to existing same-sex parent home studies revealing no significant statistical ill-effects suffered by kids.

Clark's agenda seems obvious, but the piecemeal approach not only smacks of bias and unrealistic goals, but harbors skewed logic and specious conclusions.

Lawson Meadows

Muncie

GOP platform contains inclusive language

In a shamefully dishonest post on Twitter, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg claimed that delegates to the Indiana Republican convention voted "against marriage equality." This is a lie, of course. The platform does no such thing. The platform does not propose that same-sex marriages be "broken up" or "stripped of legal protection." This sort of shameful dishonesty should not be practiced by the mayor of a city. Can the citizens of South Bend ever trust their dishonest mayor?

Here is the truth: The platform as approved by the delegates says that a family based on a marriage of a man and a woman is the foundation for a healthy society -- a statement that is self-evidently true. The Republican platform also explicitly expresses support for blended families, grandparents, guardians, single parents and loving adults who are raising children. I think we all know what "loving adults" means: It is a way to support same-sex couples. There is not even a single punctuation mark in that plank that opposes same-sex marriage.

Conservatives did not by any means win the day on June 9. We managed to avoid an attempt by country club Republicans to further water down the platform, which is already wishy-washy and weak in its support of traditional marriage. As a delegate, I would have preferred stronger language, but I did not get my wish.

If anything, the lies spread by the likes of Buttigieg demonstrate that the Republican Party will never be good enough for hyperpartisan deceivers. Even when Republicans support extremely inclusive language that supports all Hoosier families, we will be attacked, demonized and lied about. Bipartisanship is a fraud and a hoax, and Republicans must reject it.